Category: General
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Golden, BC, May-June 2025 – Part 2: Micros
The first part covered the notable macros I found on the trip, now let’s turn to the little guys. These actually contained many of the more interesting finds. Lots to cover, hoo boy. Here goes. * = lifer** = new for BC on iNat Cydia fletcherana * ** Let’s start with this fella. Brilliant. I…
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Updates; Back to the Cape
The photo above is of a Lithophane amanda (Amanda’s pinion moth), taken this morning. These are flagged as Vulnerable in BC by NatureServe, and the first time I’ve gotten one on the west side of Bowen Island. Lots of miscellaneous moth-related news! Let’s start with… UK Trip I just got back from week in the…
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Spring has sprung
What a miserably wet year! But all it takes is 24 hours with moderately warm weather and hardly any rain, and hey presto: the moths come back. I had a good dozen Feralia deceptiva, three Orthosia hibisci, a Costaconvexa centrostrigaria, and a bunch of FOYs (First Of the Year): Egira crucialis, Orthosia transparens, Ectropis crepuscularia,…
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BC Curated Checklist Update
Last week I released an update to the BC Leps Curated List which updates the BC list (now at 2855) and adds New Additions and Taxon Changes sections. This has been a bit of a labour of love these last few months, with the help and advice from a couple of members of the BC…
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A Quiet Start
Normally I spend the winter period reviewing the observations I made that year; swotting up on species and taxons that interest or puzzle me and prepare for the upcoming mothing year. But all the activity in the last three months ruled that out. In my day job, I ended up doing overtime over the Christmas…
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Checking-in
Just a quick note. This year’s mothing ended in a bang a good month ago once the rains started and the temperature dropped. I’d hoped to get to Lillooet one more time but it didn’t work out: house maintenance took priority. Boo. This last week I’ve been spending a little time revamping the source code…
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Trip report: Merritt, August 2024
Time from another trip report. It’s been a busy year! Up to 617 species in BC already, and there’s plenty of time left in the year. Originally I’d booked a hotel in Princeton for the Aug 17-18 weekend but canceled it when the weather reports predicted heavy rainstorms. Of course, the day before I would…
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Trip Report: Lillooet, July 2024
Last weekend (July 26-28) I returned to Lillooet, BC to do a little mothing. On my last trip to the area in April I was driving off the beaten-track and stumbled across the Xaxli’p Community Forest, south-west of Fountain Valley which was home to a good patch of old growth trees, so I really wanted…
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1,000 BC leps
This afternoon I got my 1,000th BC Lep: a Morophagoides burkerella, chilling in one of my pheromone traps. Year goal: check! A nice round number. 88 were butterfly, the rest were moths. The total count for species known in BC, as of today, is 2842. Guess I have long way to go!
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Ticking Ethics
Something well-known to the birder is the notion of ticking ethics. When are you allowed to count having seen a bird? It’s not as cut and dry as you might think. Often you get poor views of a bird; it’s bad light; the bird is flying away from you; it’s too far away; the bird’s…
BC Moths 